The present invention relates to the field of storage devices for motor vehicles, and more particularly to storage devices for trucks.
Trucks of the type with rear bed cargo areas such as pickup trucks are especially susceptible to unwanted intrusion. These vehicles generally have no secure storage area that will keep cargo and personal effects out of sight and secure. Articles left unattended in the truck (especially articles stored in the rear bed of the truck) are view able by potential thieves and subject to theft and tampering. The theft of articles from these open vehicles is a major problem for owners. Moreso still, the threat of theft of articles is a major inconvenience to owners when shopping, traveling, or engaging in any other activity that involves transporting articles in the vehicle.
In the past, storage devices that create secure storage space in trucks have been devised to address the above described security problem. For the most part, these storage devices are relatively permanently installed (to prevent theft of the entire device and its contents) in the vehicle--usually by mounting the storage device to the rear bed of the truck with metal bolts or sheet metal screws. One consequence of permanently mounting the storage device in the rear bed of the truck is to reduce the effective cargo capacity of the truck and thus render the truck less useful for transporting cargo. Furthermore, if the owner needs to use the rear bed of the truck at its full size, the storage device must be removed from its relatively permanent attachment to the vehicle with tools, which is a time consuming and laborious operation for the owner.
Other storage devices require installing externally supplied latching hardware onto the truck chassis or the storage device itself in order to secure the storage device to the truck, which is relatively complicated and cumbersome for the truck owner. Furthermore, when latching hardware is mounted to the truck it can degrade the aesthetics of the truck as well as impede the loading and unloading of articles in the rear bed. One such device is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,684 issued to Kenneth Miller. Miller's invention requires mounting properly spaced rails to the vehicle using sheet metal screws or welding. Another such device is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,019 issued to David Christensen. Christensen's invention also requires the relatively permanent installation of a latching mount to the vehicle.
Furthermore, other storage devices require the manipulation of relatively complicated and cumbersome latching hardware in order to attach the storage device to the vehicle. An example of this type of device is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,017 issued to Randall J. Mullican. Mullican's invention incorporates an externally mounted fixed jaw and a screw activated clamping jaw. The separated clamping device must be bolted to the storage container and the clamping jaw must be screwed by hand for the storage device to latch to the vehicle, which is a relatively arduous and time consuming process for the owner.
There is, therefore, a need in the industry for a device that addresses the problems outlined above as well as other related and unrelated problems.